Al Gore Talks With The Daily News

By Andy Meek

In a phone interview with The Daily News Thursday, Jan. 24, Al Gore talked about why he wrote his new book, “The Future,” which he’s coming to Memphis next month to promote.

He’ll be at the Booksellers at Laurelwood Feb. 18 at noon to discuss and sign the book, which he wrote to discuss the macro factors that he believes are the major drivers of global change.

“American democracy has been hacked,” the former vice president said. “It’s not working the way it’s supposed to. The economy’s not working the way it’s supposed to.

“I felt hopeful after listening to President Obama’s second inaugural. I’m encouraged that some things seem to be moving in the right direction. But I still see the influence of special interests in the Congress shaping policies in ways that don’t help the average person. You know, I don’t think corporations are people. I don’t think money is speech. I think democracy works if we get the influence of money and special interests out of it.”

Some excerpts from Gore’s new book:

“The profit-driven blurring of the line between entertainment and news, the growing influence of large advertisers on the content of news programs and the cynical distortion of news narratives by political operatives posing as news executives have all degraded the ability of the Fourth Estate to maintain sufficient integrity and independent judgment to adequately perform their essential role in democracy.”

“Aristotle wrote that the end of a thing defines its essential nature. If we are forced to contemplate the possibility that we might become the architects of our own demise as a civilization, then there are necessary implications for how we answer the question: what is our essential nature as a species? As a scientist once reframed the question: is the combination of an opposable thumb and a neocortex viable as a sustainable form of life on Earth?”